More than 4,000 students met with nearly 300 STEM professionals at Chicago’s Museum of Science and Industry (MSI) the first weekend of October during the event Science Works: Cool Jobs and Hot Careers. Meyer Tool & Mfg., Inc.’s Project Engineer Jake Rumel and President Eileen Cunningham were proud to participate in this event designed to increase student awareness of the range of exciting opportunities available when pursuing STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) careers.

Meyer Tool became aware of the event though Laurie Huget, executive director of the Cryogenic Society of America. Her mission was to assemble a team who would highlight engineering and manufacturing careers with a special focus on cryogenic applications. Meyer Tool, along with Fermilab engineer Benjamin Hansen, Fermi Physicist Emanuela Barzi and, of course, Fermi’s Jerry Zimmerman, aka, Mr. Freeze, gladly accepted Laurie’s invite. Shannon Hackett, an expert from Chicago’s Field Museum who demonstrated the lessons learned from cryogenically frozen birds and their DNA, was also in our group. Our Cryogenic team was stationed at the entrance to MSI’s Science Storms exhibit. Beneath a backdrop of a 60’ high swirling tornado, Meyer Tool’s representatives explained the basics of creating cryogenic, pressure, and vacuum vessels, illustrated with examples of machined components and welding samples. The use of computer aided design and 3D modeling was highlighted with an example of a fully modeled cryostat. Students were also given a sense of the importance of part tolerances with a gauge block demonstration.

​Jake and Eileen enjoyed the opportunity to engage with students and families enthusiastic about STEM careers. Igniting that spark is a core mission of ours and MSI visitors rewarded our participation by initiating many science discussions and pondering great questions about the cultural impact of cryogenic engineering and the challenges and benefits of getting into the engineering and manufacturing fields. We, at Meyer Tool, take tremendous pride in our ability to impact basic science and research initiatives in our daily work and enhance partner results via our Reduced Project Risk process. We were delighted to participate in Science Works and talk with students who may follow in our footsteps of trying to have a positive impact on the world, this generation and beyond, through a STEM career of their own.